TMNT’s Most Dangerous God is Making a Quiet Comeback

One of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' most powerful enemies appears to be making a comeback, which is very bad news for the Splinter Clan.

With the recent defeat of the Rat King and the destruction of the walls surrounding Mutant Town, it seemed as if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had entered a whole new era fraught with all new worries. As it turns out, that is only partially true - but in the worst ways imaginable.

After learning of the young mutant weasel Mushroom's disappearance, Raphael wastes no time in hunting down whatever help he can find to get her back. As seen in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #142 (by Kevin Eastman, Sophie Campbell, Gavin Smith, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee), this includes Alopex, who has taken the weasels in but remains uninterested in working with the Splinter Clan. This lack of comradery gives Mushroom's captor that much more time to carry out his latest experiments. Worse still, the villainous Doctor Jasper Barlow has grown proficient in utilizing the remains of the Dragon that nearly decimated the planet, so much so that the god-creature might just be manifesting on Earth all over again.

Who is TMNT's Dragon - And What Happened to Him?

First appearing in 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe #3 (by Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz, and Bill Sienkiewicz), the Dragon was an ancient and immortal deity and the father of the beings known as the Pantheon. Along with his sister the Dreamer, the Dragon was created as one of the dual aspects of Brahma's personality. While the Dreamer was meant to maintain order, the Dragon was created to destroy. As such, the Dreamer took it upon herself to seal her brother away before he could do any further harm to the world left in their care. By locking him in the nightmarish half of an endless cycle of death and rebirth, the Dreamer effectively staved off any attacks her brother would have otherwise launched.

Unfrotunately, this only lasted up until the Dragon was summoned by outside forces looking to harness his power as their own. This came in the form of Kitsune, who had spent centuries grooming her lover Oroku Saki (aka the Shredder) to be the perfect vessel for the Dragon on Earth. These efforts all came to a head in 2019's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #100 (by Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, and Dave Wachter), during which Splinter sacrificed his life to not only resurrect Oroku Saki, but also to end the life of the Dragon himself before his reign of terror could begin - even if doing so opened the doors for another threat to take its place.

How TMNT's Dragon Has Remained a Problem Long After Death

Despite the Dragon's death preventing him from launching an all out assault on the world, what was left behind in the wake of that demise hasn't been good. After retrieving the Dragon's scales from the wreckage surrounding his body, Doctor Barlow began using these shards to empower the subjects of his gruesome experiments. Although most have been failures, Barlow achieved a resounding success in the form of Venus De Milo, who the evil doctor gave life to with a Dragon scale after stitching her together from a Punk Frog corpse and Donatello's old, shattered carapace.

Venus herself may not be any overt threat to the Splinter Clan or the world at large, but the rest of Barlow's creations most certainly are. Between his so-called Night Terrors and the likes of Leatherhead, who has been transformed into a roving behemoth, it is clear that Barlow's experiments have spiraled wildly out of control. And, with the glowing red eyes he and others infused with Dragon scales have begun presenting, it is even more clear that the Dragon's influence has finally surfaced within them. This introduces not just a new breed of menace for the Turtles to deal with, but a plethora of questions, the most important of which revolves around just how dead and gone the Dragon truly is.

What the Dragon's Return Could Mean for the Ninja Turtles

Assuming the signs of the Dragon's influence are just that, it may only be a matter of time before Barlow is no longer the one calling the shots, if he still is in the first place. It might be Barlow's expertise that is being put to use in creating his patchwork mutants, but he has never before set out to do anything so evil. While he once had good intentions, this appears to no longer be the case, as it appears that the Dragon's influence has completely warped Barlow's mind as well as nearly everyone else carrying a shard of the Dragon within them.

While Barlow has seemingly embraced the change that is taking place inside of him, others such as Leatherhead are very much fighting an internal battle against the darkness that is attempting to cloud their minds and spirits. That being the case, there is still a chance of them overcoming the Dragon. No matter how far out of their favor those odds might be, there isn't any reason to expect that Leatherhead or anyone else with as much willpower will give up their bodies and souls willingly. Unfortunately, willpower alone will most likely not be enough to save those being influenced by the power of the Dragon - which means that the Turtles are likely on the verge of facing their worst enemy all over again.